Restrictions to be eased at Easter *MNHQ title edit to remind everyone not to get their hopes up.*

[sally067]

Not sure if it was mentioned in another thread but I saw tonight that it looks like the Government plans are that we will see this lockdown lifted at the beginning of April.

twitter.com/tnewtondunn/status/1351313981894483970

This thread of tweets seems to suggest that cities will likely only go back into Tier's 3 and 4 though so we'll still be in a lockdown of sorts until May regardless of the vaccine rollout due to the shear number of cases at present. I guess any hope of things opening in February or March were a bit of a long shot with the new variant.

All seems so endless. Easter is 12 weeks or 51 working days away. I've never wished my life away so much and really hope we get an early Spring.

@DecemberSun

I only know one person in RL who thinks restrictions should be lifted and life back to "normal".

He isn't awfully bright and has no understanding of basic science. A bit like Johnson.

Let's hope wiser heads prevail or we'll be back in lockdown by July.

I don’t think we should lift everything now and go back to completely normal. But things do need to be relaxed a bit. People are not going to not see family for another 4 months. If the government want compliance they need to give something. I’m not sitting at home watching schools go back and not being allowed to see my family. Sorry it’s just not going to happen.

This planning was going to be done so it is no surprise. I suspect they have a raft of different ideas depending on the way the figures go.

I was hoping for some easing in March. I can cope with lockdown if they opened the gyms.

@SexTrainGlue

As I posted on the other thread about this:

They won't want us suddenly going and mixing over Easter

So I'd put it a week or so later for behavioural reasons (and because those being vaccinated now won't have had their second jabs (allowing for the 2 weeks after the second shot for it to 'take' fully, only those done in December will be properly covered, and we don't want to provoke the hail before Armistice)

Which is a shame because it means the most significant Christian festival gets buggered up twice.

It'll be Easter weekend, so we can have the "Boris Saves Easter" headlines.

The teachers should be vaccinated before schools go back. If schools are to open after the usual February half term then a decision needs to be taken this week and the logistics need to be in place by w/c 25th Jan and injections complete by 1st Feb. Children could then return three weeks later.

Gosh I do believe a herd of unicorns has assembled on my back lawn.

@inquietant

Thank you for understanding what I meant from my garbled message!! I’m so frustrated by the whole thing. How on earth are they supposed to sit exams if they don’t go back to school until Easter? Primary years (I’m KS1) yes I understand but they can’t keep exam years out of school until after Easter.

That does seem like a eternity when put in weeks. I think I need to look at a Ictober holiday after all being realistic 😭

@inquietant

There is going to be a serious backlash against the government sooner or later.

Only a small minority think current lockdown is too harsh. They are vocal, but most support the measures or want measures to go further.

Many people wanted stricter measures in place earlier during winter so we wouldn't be in this fucking mess now.

@wanderings

Sigh. So we're just starting "we can turn thith viruth around in twelve weekth" all over again. The pain, confusion, frustration and boredom we've suffered since March has all been for nothing. We are well and truly back to square one, and now with a massive recession and millions unemployed to look forward to, and absolutely decimated mental health. Thank you, Saint Boris. This is what you will be remembered for. I hope you enjoy your place in the history books.

As for those who are hoping for another 9 months of this lockdown hell: I hope you have found another magic money tree to fund your loooooooooooong lockdown, and the mental health services which will be needed. People are effectively being imprisoned for a crime which they didn't commit.

The end will be in sight.
The end will be in sight.
The end will be in sight.
The end will be in sight.
The end will be in sight.
The end will be in sight.
We've been hearing this since March LAST YEAR!!!!!!!!!

I am very much not a fan of the PM, but you writing that sentence as if said
by someone who has a speech impediment is a pretty unpleasant thing to do.

@ineedaholidaynow

Schools are going on Easter? How do you know? Primaries first? I ask myself every day and feel like the government want schools back first as all the papers are saying ‘lockdown until March with the possible exception of schools’.

I have continually said that kids shouldn't go back until after Easter. If parents want their kids back at school (which I presume is primary school age) after the Feb half term then so be it but secondary school kids shouldn't go back until after Easter. Lockdown should remain throughout the winter period and go back to the tier system in spring/summer.

We are here due to the complacency and half hearted lockdowns. The not so subtle herd immunity the gov’t have wanted has given the illness plenty of time to mutate into stronger more transmissible variations.

Agree with whoever said we'll likely just go back to tiers anyway so still won't really be able to do anything I'm interested in.
We had a family baby born at the beginning of the first lockdown. Usually we'd be very close, as it is we barely know her and have probably only seen her in person 3 times. I suspect her first birthday will be a bloody zoom party.

Not keeping my kids locked up much longer.

I just want schools back. I can cope with everything else.

Easter won’t be saved though if restrictions are in place until Easter that means no Easter trade in shops and if you go back to tiers it is no different to lockdown at all. I can’t really think of any benefit tier 4 offers as it is lockdown.

My mental health can't last that long. I'm sorry but I am already considering rule breaking because I simply cannot take it anymore.

Rubbish I know, but I would rather have an extended lockdown to make sure we’re going to be okay, rather than come out of it too soon, and then bounce back into lockdown again.

Great. Wedding date number 4 on 2nd May. If we go back into Tier 4 we would only be allowed to marry if one of us was terminally ill. We've postponed 3 times now over the course of the last year and still no closer.

@IndiaMay

Great. Wedding date number 4 on 2nd May. If we go back into Tier 4 we would only be allowed to marry if one of us was terminally ill. We've postponed 3 times now over the course of the last year and still no closer.

I'd think about moving it to next year if you can

I am beginning to wonder if we will ever get out of this

Goodness I hope that is completely wrong and from the middle of February we see some change.

We need to open things up before then as otherwise shops/pubs etc will not be able to survive. There is also the mental health side that needs to considered.

I posted my thinking on another thread last weekend, a thread asking for opinions whereby I wrote about the tier system being reintroduced and hopefully being in tier 4 end Feb/early March so technically out of lockdown and at least tier 2 by July and some people said I was being a pessimist. Seeing this thread I think I’m more likely an optimist/realist.

I really thought after half term but before Easter hols, all schools would be reopened. My query now would be:finally the government and advisers eg Jenny Harris yesterday, finally acknowledge children CAN catch and pass on covid 19 within school and the community (yes they don’t get unwell etc) but how can schools now return as before without following the 2m or mitigation rule? Arguably secondary school pupils could wear masks in lessons (ds school doing this now with the key worker children/vulnerable) along with the staff but in primary this wouldn’t work. Yes staff could wear them but as we’ve been told time and time again the mask protects others not the wearer so a teacher would be in a room with 30 children for 5+ hours and children close to each other potentially spreading covid between them all. I don’t have an ideal answer but rotas initially some face to face learning better than none. This isn’t not without problems and definitely not a medium/long term solution.

@Mrgrinch hope you are okay. Do what you need to do. Please make sure you talk to someone.

@Tempnamelady

We are in the NW so effectively been in lockdown of sorts since November , I can’t tell you how depressing it has been. I coped well-ish till the gyms shut and since then it’s just been so bloody grim.

Greater Manchester has been in some sort of lockdown since March 2020, with the exception of three weeks!

@Beaniecats yes, problem is we've been doing that for the last year, this is our 4th date. By next May we would have been engaged 3 and a half years and I'll have had my dress 3 years! We will have been together 14 years and we will be 31!

We had our hen and stag dos last year as we had to cancel 4 weeks before our wedding when we went into the first lockdown. The whole thing has been one long, stressful nightmare and I just want it over with.

Marriages have been banned on and off now for a year, if this carries on another year that means no weddings for 2 years. The whole industry will go bust.